Do you go without health care coverage (US)?

This only applies to people in the US since I'm sure health care rules are different in other countries.

Does anyone go without health care coverage, and has it ever resulted in a problem for you? Back in September, I bought a short term (6-month) plan, which I know at the time they told me I could renew just 1 time for an additional 6 months, which basically gave me 12 months coverage, so I didn't worry more about it. I bought that plan because it was the cheapest, I never go to the doctor and knew I would be filing no claims, and only wanted it in case I got hit by a bus or something. So it expires this week, and I called to renew it for 6 more months, they tell me that short term plans are not renewable, and since I had purchased a short term plan, they can no longer sell me any other plan. And this is freaking Humana, not some little company you ain't never heard of.

So now I have no health insurance. I've been looking at other websites, and they are way more than what I was paying (only $72 a month compared to some $200+ a month), and again since I never go to the doctor, I was thinking screw it, just don't have it. But what happens if I DO get hit by a bus or something? What would happen if I have some health emergency and don't have insurance? Do any of you not have health insurance and if so, what do you do in an emergency? Not run of the mill stuff like doctor visits, I just OTC myself if I get sick, but a true health emergency?

My sister-in-law goes to the emergency room for everything then manages to get the hospital to write off all or part of the bill. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Including for a sty in her eye.

It works out nicely for her. And the whole community blames the Hispanic population for the huge amount of hospital bills written off every year putting their hospital in debt, when they have revealed that patients with Latino last names make up less than 10% of those charges.

A friend of mine, on a more serious note, had to have emergency surgery two years ago followed by four months of rehabilitation care. She had no health insurance. She was counting on the fact that she never went to the doctor, used OTC drugs...all the stuff you say. She didn't have an accident to cause the emergency surgery, either. She was able to get the rehab center to write off 50% of her bill. The hospital wrote off none of it and she was unable to qualify for any Medicaid assistance. She was self-employed and, therefore, had no sick pay or other benefits to help. In total, she had six months of no income and staggering medical bills. She is still making monthly payments to both the hospital and the rehab center and will be for several more years.

Do you do anything that could put you at risk? Like, I don't know, leave your house? Drive? etc?

Not just being facetious. One of my best friends opted out of COBRA coverage when she changed jobs from being full-time at one and per-diem at the other, and flip flopped; so it was a 90 day period between when her new insurance coverage would start. She figured that she would rather do without, seeing as that she is a pretty healthy mid-30s kinda person. In the last 6 weeks, a kidney infection, bronchitis, and dislocated kneecap with xray/MRI/doctor/prescriptions, etc. Several thousands out of pocket because she opted out of interim coverage.

I was laid off in April: I am older and I have been turned down by the two policies I thought I could squeeze in and still pay the mortgage. The only ones I've found since then have a large deductible (I can live with that) but are asking around $450.00 a month. (Cobra was $505.00) I just can't swing it with the rest of the bills. So I don't have insurance right now.
On top of that my mother has been ill and I am her caretaker. Here is what slays me: Starbucks has a medical plan for part-timers and there is a Starbucks very close. But I fear getting a job there because I fear losing the one part-time option that covers me medically. I had taken a lot of Family Leave after my folks were in a car wreck (Dad has since died) and Mom is struggling. My manager protected me but when new ownership came in I was out the door. I understand--you need your workers to work. If I get a job with Starbucks and then lose it because Mom is my priority then where am I?
For now I continue to look for a plan that I can afford (that will not turn me away) and look for job opportunities at home. It does upset me that I did find something that I thought would work but they didn't want me. I am in good health but I guess age matters to them. I would gladly pay for some form of Obamacare or Romneycare.
I wish you more luck than I have had BaileyCatts. I am afraid I am going to be that person in the emergency room if this continues.

My sister-in-law could afford a high deductible private plan. She had one once. She is young enough and in good enough health that it would not be out of reach. But she is also batshit crazy and "refuses" to be "seduced by modern medicine" when eating organic food and doing yoga will "guarantee" that she is never in need of medical treatment. Except that she needs medical care more than her parents, brother or me combined and is constantly in the ER with some malady.

My friend could have afforded a plan at the time of her surgery. It was an expense she didn't care to have and preferred to spend her money on entertainment and travel. She can't afford one now. Nor can she afford the entertainment or travel she was doing before. All of that money is going to pay off medical bills. She knows she made a big mistake in judgment before because she is living with the consequence and will be for a long time.

I truly feel for people who have no affordable options for health insurance. That is a problem we need to fix. People who do have options and decide not to purchase a plan because they have other priorities or oddball ideas, on the other hand...they are contributing to our health care problems because eventually they need care and someone has to pick up the tab.

I had great insurance with United Health Care until my husband sold the business. During the time I WAS covered, I had berast cancer. It was only a Stage 1 with no lymph node involvement (thank God!) so I only had 2 lumpechtomies and radiation. Total cost to United?? $300,000!

Since selling the business, we have no health insurance. My husband is now on Medicare thank goodness. I can get little supplemental policies and some healthcare coverage, but since I have a pre-existing condition (even though I am cured..) the policies cover very little and cost a fortune. Believe me, I have tried. I'll be 5 years clean next year, and I'm hoping that helps.

Don't believe it when they say you can get coverage even with a pre-existing condition. Oh, you can, but it won't do you much good and it'll cost more than most people can afford.

So, I am without coverage. I live in fear of a major health problem. I'm 62 with 3 years to go to Medicare. I'm praying to be healthy that long! I do know from experience that if you are a self-pay, it's 50% of what they bill the insurance companies. My oncologists say they will work with anybody to help people afford care. I'm terrified I'm going to lose my house if something awful happens.

I feel your pain!

BTW-getting hit by a bus would probably be covered by the bus company's insurance....

You're screwed if you have any sort of long-term chronic conditions. To get onto one of the "health care exchanges" for high-risk patients, you MUST have had NO insurance for at least 6 months. If you've had the lousy luck to, say, get childhood leukemia or have a wonky thyroid or whatever else cannot possibly be your fault, you are in big trouble. Paying for those maintenance drugs for 6 months may be impossible. Yeah, insurance companies and pharma companies have programs to help pay all or some of the cost, but the amount of paperwork and hassle is unbelievable.

And if you're self-employed, forget it. Insurance is almost always completely unaffordable.

It's unfortunate that this is what this country has come to in terms of health care. In my opinion, there should be a baseline menu of essential services that are covered for everyone (not that everyone would agree on what's "essential"), as is the case in MANY other countries.

Sorry for the BaileyCatts, is there a high-deductible policy you could get? If you're generally healthy that'd be the way to go--will cover anything major that happens.

Going on five years without insurance. I have a longtime domestic partner but can't get on his insurance. I turn 40 in a few weeks and am guessing that I will need insurance soon. Everything has come out of pocket, and even an office visit ($120) can be too much sometimes.

I went without it for two years, and nothing happened. But that's certainly not any sort of guarantee for you.

Cachoo, it wouldn't hurt to talk to the people at Starbucks. They open up pretty early, so they have plenty of shifts and could probably work around your schedule.

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Yes--Mom had a bad autumn but this winter (or lack of it ) has not been nearly as bad. She did have a seizure but I think we have figured out why and it isn't chronic. So at this point I feel more sure about checking with Starbucks and combining that with transcription work (if I can find it) or even temp work outside of the home depending on the Mom's wellness each day.

BaileyCatts--just curious and you don't have to answer of course. Are you under 30?
Note To PDilemma: Don't you just want to shake people sometimes? We all end up paying for their bad decisions.

I went without it for two years, and nothing happened. But that's certainly not any sort of guarantee for you.

Cachoo, it wouldn't hurt to talk to the people at Starbucks. They open up pretty early, so they have plenty of shifts and could probably work around your schedule.

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I too went without health insurance for 2 years when I was in my late 40's and between permanent jobs. Fortunately nothing happened in my case as well.

However, in dealing with my elderly mother's health issues I can say that the fact that she had insurance made a big difference in the care she received. When she broke her hip, the hospital was ready to send her home a few days after the surgery and she would have been on her own. When they found out she had insurance in addition to Medicare, they sent her to a rehab facility for 8 weeks.

I'm currently covered but in the fall I'm intending to leave my job and go to culinary school. I know there are COBRA options but my stomach drops every time I think about how much that's going to cost. I sometimes think I can just get away with not being covered but I know that'd come back to bite me in the ass.

This is where the everyone should pay their share argument gets me... If you don't want tot pay for med ins..... Fine...... Just don't go to my hospital when you are sick...... Don't rack up bills that have to be written off into higher prices... And don't use resources you have chosen not to pay for.

Part of why med coverage is so expensive is that people choose... The spiffy smartphone, great laptop nice car, trips, flatscreen tv, and the etc.

I am not talking about people who are really poor... But 20-35 young professionals who figure they can do without it... And the can... Until they smash into a bus while txting and, end up with a compound fracture.

When the company I worked for was sold, I found the COBRA options at best, and did not take advantage of them. A few weeks later I fell off a ladder, fractured my pelvis and broke my wrist in 6 places. I was out of action for 2 full months.

I wish I had obtained medical coverage, even with a high deductible. It would have been preferable to paying all the hospital, ER, and doctors' bills I paid. Only the orthopedic surgeon deducted a large chunk from his bill. Guess who I paid first.

One thing to think about BaileyCatt: if you have a gap in your insurance coverage, will that make getting insurance later on a problem? It can.

I went without insurance for a while back in the 80s when I was in my 20s and it worked out. But last year I got laid off and I only got COBRA for the kids and me for medical, not dental. I figured that I'd only be unemployed 6 months and we were all due for a cleaning but that would only end up costing just over $375 while 6 months of COBRA would cost $575,

Well I did get a job in 6 months but I'm a contractor with no benefits. And then I had a crown break and there is also decay on that tooth and, even with the discounts my dentist is willing to give me, it's still going to cost me $1300 to get it all fixed and get the night guard I need to stop having this happen in the future (I've started grinding my teeth again with all the stress). And we are all on our second teeth cleaning and I forgot to tell them not to do x-rays for my daughter so it cost 2x as much for her and the boy and I just had to do without x-rays.

So far I've paid $875 in dental bills not counting the stuff I need to do to my crown. I would have paid $950 in dental insurance during this time (10 months) and it would have covered all the cleanings, the x-rays and half the crown. So I would have spent $1550 for $2425 worth of services and been ahead. Plus my son and I would also have gotten the x-rays we should have and I would not have issues with my teeth every time I eat solid food. (I have to run to the bathroom to floss or food gets stuck in there risking me getting worse problems.)

Now, in the greater scheme of things, this is not a lot of money and not a lot of aggravation. But it's a picture of how it works if you don't get medical insurance and then "things" happen. Now multiple all those numbers because medical issues usually cost a lot more than dental issues.

I'm currently covered but in the fall I'm intending to leave my job and go to culinary school. I know there are COBRA options but my stomach drops every time I think about how much that's going to cost. I sometimes think I can just get away with not being covered but I know that'd come back to bite me in the ass.

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If you are young and have no pre-existing conditions, you can get private insurance. It may have higher deductibles/copays than what your COBRA gives you but it should cost less.

In my case, because of pre-existing conditions, they wanted my son and I to pay 25% more than the standard premium, which have been okay. But they wanted my daughter to pay 300% more because an ENT said she needed her tonsils & adenoids removed. The end result was that we'd be paying $25 a month less for about half the coverage as COBRA. So I went with COBRA and made sure we all had EVERYTHING done we could get done during this time. And my son had an emergency and was in the hospital for 5 day that we hadn't planned on and has a lot of after care too.

If the ailment is protracted or requires hospital stay/procedure, you will reach your deductible eventually. For instance, the catastrophic insurance kicked in fast enough when I gave birth. Yes, we had to pay about $100 for every prenatal visit but once I delivered, the deductible was reached.

I went without dental last year. I had just had a cleaning and a bunch of fillings done in December 2010, and though my insurance covered 80% of the bill, I still owed about $350 out of pocket. So instead of paying $375 a year in 2011 for dental coverage, I skipped it and paid the OOP expense with that money.

I should have gotten a cleaning in the middle of the year, since it's only $99, but I just kept putting it off. Eventually it was so late, I just decided to get dental back for 2012. My teeth are genetically soft and I've needed fillings often.

No health insurance is one of the reasons I've shied away from moving without a job lined up. That's a nice catch-22 since it's difficult to get hired if you aren't already living there, but I don't want to move without a job.

You're screwed if you have any sort of long-term chronic conditions. To get onto one of the "health care exchanges" for high-risk patients, you MUST have had NO insurance for at least 6 months.

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I've also had breast cancer, so no private insurance will touch me, even though I'm 5 years clean. But, I did get into two state's high risk plans with no waiting period (Kentucky and Idaho). Just came straight off of COBRA. The prices are very high, and have high deductibles, but I don't like having to risk our retirement savings if something did happen (again). I am one of the most healthy people on a high risk plan. I run/exercise regularly, take no prescription drugs, have a healthy weight, no history of mental illness, etc. It is crazy that no one will insure me except the state.

I have private individual insurance for which I pay dearly, and unless you fancy the idea of potentially being saddled with a large medical bill for the rest of your life, I would recommend that you find some type of catastrophic high-deductible plan and find the way to pay for it. People rarely expect to get sick, but we do. Even the healthy among us. All it takes is one unanticipated surgery and you'll be facing a bill of potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

Plus, as Mac said (I think), if you have a gap in coverage you are going to be screwed in the future if you have any pre-existing conditions.

I just smile when people complain about having to pay $200 per month for health insurance. I'm retired, am part of a huge group and still pay nearly $500 every month. That's just for me--no spouse, no kids. I'll be 65 this year and will be glad for that amount to go way down.

Both my kids had fairly long periods of time without coverage when they were younger.
It didn't seem to worry them, but I fretted over it. Thank God they never had a sickness or accident that required a trip to the hospital.

I went almost 2 years without insurance when I was laid off. COBRA for myself was $300+ per month and I just could not afford that on unemployment. The only reason I haven't quit my current job is to keep my insurance. Last year I complained about ghe high deductibles, but in hindsight, I know it beats a blank.

I actually got an individual dental plan for just over $30 per month an it helped picked up a lot of slack my group plan doesn't. Ex: employer group plan does not cover crowns at all but this plan does. When I tried to get medical coverage thru the same broker who sold the dental plan he refused to give me a quote...he told me to tough it out with my group coverage because the deductible was enormous and the premium payments would have bought a car. I was under 40 with no pre-existing conditions.

This year I chose group coverage that covers until you reach a spending limit of $1500 and then there is a gap in coverage until you reach another spending limit. I am healthy, so I chose that because I have not spent $1000 in medical bills including prescriptions in the last 5 years. About a month ago I walked into a store (national chain) where I slipped and fell on a wet rubber mat. I went to the emergency room, had follow up visits with my doctor, filled prescriptions, and currently going to physical therapy.

I cannot run any of this thru my insurance or I will end up in that gap period. Everyone of my bills has to be forwarded to my lawyer who collects them to be sent to the store owner. It is a pain in the ass. All I can do is thank God I did not fall on ice in front of my house because I would have had a big bill. Next year I hope there are better insurance options for all of us.